A major problem with electromagnetic valve drives for operating a cylinder valve in a piston-type internal combustion engine is that in the presence of a valve play, the valve touchdown speed must be controlled so as to reach extremely low values (below 0.2 m/s). This is due to the fact that relative to the armature distance, the valve touchdown point changes for thermal reasons (variation of the valve play) during the operation. The armature furthermore must still safely reach the pole face after the valve has touched down. If the current supply is too low, the armature reverses direction too early and knocks the valve off again. If the current supplied is too high, the resulting armature touchdown speeds- are too high, which leads to an acoustic problem as well as rebounding actions and, in the worst case, also to a renewed, uncontrolled valve opening and thus a failure of the complete system.
The invention is explained in further detail with the aid of schematic drawings.